Let's see your Mouse photos!

[leechlake]

Since we've got a thread going in outdoor discussions on mousing let's see your pics? Feel free to tell your story too.

[monstermoose78]

Make sure to clean the mouse up no bloody photo guys and no big piles of mice.Please Smile when posing with mouse. Use the wife's cooking scale to prove the weight of the mouse.

[leech~~]

Since we've got a thread going in outdoor discussions on mousing let's see your pics? Feel free to tell your story too.

Already post on the ORIG, start of this post but oh well!

[trollingforeyes]

Careful...PETA is watching!

[leechlake]

Well its Day 2 of my mouse hunt. My son has some friends coming over and they watch tv down stairs and eat snacks, spill snacks, and leave cans of Mountain Dew all over the place. I'm not sure how my dabs of peanut butter will compete with all of the other forage available but I'm still confident I will get an entry into the contest by tomorrow morning.

I had hunted out of town the last 21 of 31 days and most of those hunts I never saw a stoplight in all the small towns I was in but my wife and I are going out on a date tonight and I think I'll have her drive because if I'm correct their are 6 stoplights on HWY 55 from our house to where we're going. Not sure I can handle them yet.

I may have an extra beverage or two tonight so I can actually fall asleep. That anticipation of checking the traps in the morning usually leaves me restless. We all know that you don't need to get up super early mouse hunting so if I'm a bit foggy at sunup I will just sleep a little longer.

Also, I have to shut the door to the room where my mouse bucket is so the pup doesn't lick the peanut butter off again. I'd prefer to leave it open to funnel the buggers in there but I'd guess they can just crawl under the door, except for the trophy mice which obviously need a bit more room.

I wish you all luck tonight and be safe.

[huntnfish]

I call talk on all this mouse hunting. No way this is fair chase. Has to be high fence.

[leechlake]

Well, well.

The night started out differently than I planned, similar to many hunting trips. We discussed the stop lights and the driving and seems I miscalculated the fact that I had been gone 21 of 31 days hunting and she had been home with the kids 31 of 31 of those days driving two teenagers under 16 everywhere. Son turns 16 on Dec 16, we call it mom and dad's golden birthdays. Mrs. Leech Lake said if we went west to Loretto there are only 3 stop lights and if we take a side street only 2. I was busted and now the designated driver.

Wrinkle #2. I had jeans and a baseball cap on in camo, haven't shaved for 3 weeks or so, moderately nice shirt (with no blood on sleeves) and a wind vest. Wife came down looking pretty dam good if I can say after 18 years of marriage; fluffy soft sweater, skirt, knee high boots, jewelry etc, nice hair the whole thing! I told her I looked ridiculous compared to her and she said she didn't care but she'd put jeans on instead (who is this gal? Not always this accommodating but I'll take it).

We head out and did indeed end up going the stop light way into Plymouth population 89,471. Decided to stop for a beverage before going to dinner and there was a pet food store there. Puppy needed some food so I asked her if we could stop there, she agreed (I'm really doing up a date with the wife good so far huh?) Had a nice dinner, fun place, and at dinner Mrs Leech Lake told me how our 14 year old daughter thinks it's funny I spend time on FM, they call it a blog site. I filled her in on the Mouse posts, she pretended to be interested like it was our first date, what a gal.

Headed back home and I guess I will have to leave some parts out here. Puppy jumped in bed at 530 am, snuggled a bit with her (the pup I mean) and I headed down and fed the dogs, made some coffee, and then with excitement pretty close to being a kid heading down to the Christmas tree on Dec 25th put my sandals on without socks and headed to my post. As I neared the door I noticed in the near dark a spot on the ground. I turned my phone on and I'll be if the wolves had been there, small little puppy load laying by the door. My heart sank. Seemed the son and his buddys didn't watch the pup close enough when we were at dinner. I stepped over the damage and headed in.

I saw the soup can and before peering in the bucket I noticed that there was very little, if any, peanut butter left. At first I was concerned but then remembered I had heard years ago in mouse traps to put very little peanut butter on the Victors. Make the mouse work at it and WHAMO! With trepidation I looked in the bucket that now also had sunny seeds floating on top (Thanks EyeGuy) and saw mouse #1 floating on top. I was tingling with excitement. Due to all of the seeds the clarity of the water was pretty poor. Probably a 2 on a Sechi reading. I took one ramp and stirred the pail to find mouse #2 had drowned and then sank. Ever had to pull a deer out of the water? Pretty close to the same thing happens to a sunk mouse, it was quite a chore but a chore I did with so much adrenaline pumping through me I didn't even notice it.

I did make one rather large mistake. The bucket had been sitting on the deck for the past month and was filthy. Due to that fact I had to throw the mice in the trash obviously violating Wanton Waste laws. I have a call into a metro CO, yes I've self reported myself. I'm not sure what other regs I've violated but I'm sure you all will let me know. Here are my first two mice of 2014:

[Dave S]

Aren't they supposed to be tagged either through an ear or the hind leg?

Certainly hope there's no evidence of being run over by a studded track. Chasing miniature game with a motor vehicle is illegal.

[monstermoose78]

what a great write up

[leechlake]

Dave- they changed that law about 8 years ago when guys were tagging mice at kill sit and then the tag came off from dragging the mouse through the brush. I only have to tag once on a motorized vehicle and this photo was before I tied them to the sled to drag out. Nice try..

[Dave S]

thanks leech. Back in the day we didn't drag our mice for that very reason. Here's a picture of our huntin' truck

We used to stick a lot of mice way back when. Tooth pics and monofilament makes a mean long (short) bow. That is until they introduced that power braid stuff. It's just insane what kind of velocity you get when using thin gauge flux core wire for arrows. The flux really helps with the lubricity and offers good pass-through shots everytime.

[DonBo]

Here's a question. If you're just going to toss those mice in a dumpster, do you need to tag them?

[eyeguy 54]

Oh the memories, this beast was taken in my younger years while I was on a trek through Mongolia with a few fellow mouse hunters. The fact that it was white made it a special challenge since we were hunting above 10,000 feet and snow cover was crazy. Add to that with the extreme cold mt lips kept getting stuck to my blow gun since it was made of metal. Finally after missing a half dozen regular mice I spotted this beauty when he slipped up chasing one of the gal mice across a small brown patch of ground and my aim was on the money. I feel so lucky!

[DonBo]

I didn't think white mice were legal anywhere. I guess when in Mongolia, do as the Mongolians do?

[eyeguy 54]

I had to pay an extra $3 (American) to get the bonus white mouse tag. Great gamble on my part.

[monstermoose78]

That is an awesome story Eyeguy what a trophy animal.

[eyeguy 54]

Thx Moose, share your stories guys. Not everyone can brag about trophy mice!

[leechlake]

Stuck a fawn last night. Funny thing is I slept over at my 85 year old dad's house last night so we could spend some time together. We talked about deer hunting and I told him about my mouse kills. He said he saw one in his house but we didn't get around to setting up a stand or anything. Josey Wales was on and then the Wild game, we were too busy.

Got home and there it was, don't really know if it was a doe or buck fawn but it was noticeably smaller than the two from the day before. I'm kind of busy preparing to make some subs for the Vikes loss and I did find NY Strip roasts at Cub for $6.99 so I picked one up for dinner so I'm not posting a photo.

My daughter told me last night I'm like the Mike Carrell geek guy from some movie where he makes mouse dioramas. I've seen the movie but can't remember the title. Maybe this is how he got started?

Dinner For Schmucks

[leechlake]

Last night it looks to me like a big adult must have been in my crosshairs. Quite a bit of the peanut butter and Nutella are gone but nothing went splash. I've learned over the years that's why they call it hunting. Some of the more athletic mice can handle the rolling of the can, sometimes it's luck on there part. I've also decided to get rid of the sunnys in the bucket. In the am I like to come down to a clean kill and the sunnys make the bucket hard to see into and when I stir it looking for mice I feel like I may puke into the bucket.

I realized over the weekend that my posts are kind of running their course and this hunt may not go on too much longer or at least not be documented here on FM. It's too bad because we all like controversy especially when it doesn't involve yourself. Seems my neighbor has family coming over this week for Thanksgiving and his brother in law was planning on hunting at their house. Mark came over last night and asked at least over the Holiday if I'd not hunt this weekend to give them some space. I'm kicking myself because back on the 4th of July he told me this may happen and since the only mouse I'd seen that time of year was living under my grill and I foolishly said yes. ARGHHHH!!!

Surface Tension brought up an important tip in the original post. Knocking on some doors this time of year can really pay dividends. Lots of folks will open up their homes for you if you just ask. Remember to close the doors and respect any livestock aka dogs they have on the property. Also, don't forget to do what Harvey Lee does, send a nice note at Christmas with a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant, you'll be invited back for years to come (leaving some of the game for them is not suggested in this case).

[Deet]

Not a mouse hero shot, unfortunately.

Still having heartburn that my property has all but dried up with mouse sign, I set up a trail cam. The first morning I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 97 photos. Thinking to myself "I must have had some blowing brush in the way" as I started to click through a couple no-show pics, I noticed a tail at the edge of the fourth pic. Fifth pic? THIS GUY! I guess that explains why they're not using their typical travel routes or making any sign. Wolves moved in.

Sorry this picture isn't great, but you can tell it's obviously a mousewolf. Don't even try to tell me it's s mousoyote, in the dozen other pics the proportions of the tail, ears, and muzzle make it obvious.

What do you guys suggest now? I don't have a tag for him. SSS? Or should I move to some different property? Unfortunately this is my only section with even a prayer of getting a mouse. I'd hate to go public - mousing on my own land is all I've ever known. Plus I can't afford to get my traps stolen by some Joe Schmoe passerby.

(real story - butchering deer in garage, this weasel started getting pretty friendly. Snapped a pic, thinking of this thread.)

[leechlake]

weasel? I don't think so. I cleared it up and its an albino mink. That's a rare treasure and I know some mink coat makers that would pay big bucks if you had two of them for the lapels of a coat to compliment the rest of the coat. If I'm wrong they'd still use it in kind of a counterfeit way and they'd lie that it's mink. 50% less money for you though.

97 cam pics...that would make me nervous and while I was going to put my trail cam by the mouse bucket I'd hate to see what I don't want to see. I found enough mouse dung on a big white candle my wife has on the bar in the basement, photo proof would be too much.

[DonBo]

So, I took at youth out for his first ever mouse hunt last weekend. It was a cold, windy, snowy day. We cut a big track early in the morning and followed it up for hours. To his credit, we passed on several lesser mice during the day, including one big beautiful meadow vole.

We finally cornered him and had him dead to rights, but upon closer inspection, he didn't have 4 per side. Dang APR's where we hunt. Just another example of a few trophy hunters spoiling it for the rest of us. I mean, who eats horns, right?

The kid was very disappointed, as was I.

I snapped this one photo before we sadly turned our back on maybe this young boys first and last hunt.

[leechlake]

Don,

hunter retention is all they talk about and then they do this stuff....frustrating to say the least. Maybe us older guys who have experienced great moments in the field already tolerate this stuff and look at the hunt as a bigger thing but the kids want action. Next thing you know that kid will just be playing Mouse Trap at home or on Xbox and 30 years from now where will we be at?

[Jameson]

What is the name of the movie where the guy goes to Alaska or Canada to study the wolves and ends up eating a bunch of mice?

Everyone needs to take some lessons from that guy to avoid the wanton waste that is so prevalent on this thread. Sure using the white one's fur is getting some use out of some mice, but what a waste of good red meat.

[DonBo]

What is the name of the movie where the guy goes to Alaska or Canada to study the wolves and ends up eating a bunch of mice?

Here ya go: